Faculty Research and Development Centres

Print this page

Print all pages

Download this page

Download all pages

A A A

FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Centre for Child and Family Science

Vision
To become the centre of excellence for child and family science in the Greater China and Asia Pacific Region.

Mission

To embark on high-quality, innovative interdisciplinary research that makes a meaningful difference to children, families, and the community;
To translate research findings into practice and a source of useful information to improve systems and policies pertinent to child and family wellbeing;
To provide professional support to families, preschools, and the community;
To organise knowledge exchange activities to bring research and skills to the public sphere, particularly with respect to childhood and family issues; and
To forge dialogues, engagement and partnerships among academia, community-based organisations and the government, for insights into the dynamics of child, family and the community.

Our Work
The Centre for Child and Family Science (CCFS) has a responsibility and unwavering commitment to provide applicable research outputs, knowledge and services that support and applaud the relationship between the child, family, school, and community. It draws on interwoven expertise of academics within and beyond the University, and other professionals in the community, to achieve synergies and stimulate innovation. Structurally, CCFS comprises two units with different foci and contributions:

Research and Innovation Unit

Specifically, the Research and Innovation Unit defines the Centre's research strategies and drives it towards growth with excellence and diversity. Emphasis will be placed on innovative, interdisciplinary, and interactive initiatives at an international level including:
Producing and disseminating scientifically-derived knowledge on child and family studies, particularly in Asian contexts, through the delivery of applied research;
Designing quality and innovative research for securing funding from different sources;
Establishing networks across borders and cultures for academic collaboration and exchange;
Facilitating the publication of high-quality research outputs across platforms and formats; and
Bridging or bringing scholars, practitioners and agencies from multiple disciplines together to address education, social and cultural issues for healthy development of child and family functioning.

Professional Development and Support Unit
The Professional Development and Support Unit serves as a vehicle for moving research to practice and back, to have practice inform our research. It is tasked with the provision of quality professional development and supporting services to practitioners, agencies, systems, and communities in all areas to help children and families thrive. Through these human services, the Unit also collects quantitative and qualitative evidence to support the Centre's research.

Typical knowledge transfer activities around child development and family dynamics include:

Consultancy and training services for schools, government and non-government agencies, academics and practitioners to implement advanced practices, innovative initiatives, informed decisions and policies. Formats include partnership or commissioned projects, strategic consultancy and advisory, professional development programmes, etc.
Conferences, seminars, forums and workshops to disseminate research-informed knowledge to the public, academics and practitioners locally and internationally.
Organisational/School-based quality improvement schemes to empower organisations and schools in policy-making, design and implementation of context-sensitive strategies, and effective deployment of resources to support positive development of children and families.

Centre for Educational and Developmental Sciences

Introduction
One in five people in Hong Kong lives in poverty. Both poverty and its associated effects on parental stress have negative impacts on children's development. Coupled with a rapidly greying population, the need to give our children the education, upbringing, and environment to be the best they can be is more urgent than ever. The Centre for Educational and Developmental Sciences conducts research that helps us understand the factors that contribute to individual differences in development. The Centre also designs interventions that help level the playing field, so that children with diverse needs and backgrounds have the opportunities for optimal development. Bringing together colleagues with different expertise (e.g., early childhood education, special education cognitive development, educational neuroscience, language development, and pedagogical content knowledge) and methodological orientations (phenomenological, physiological, and psychological), our work is driven by the belief that, as society evolves, a thorough understanding of individual, social, and pedagogical factors are necessary to provide the knowledge needed for adaptation.

Vision

To conduct world-class research that is recognised locally and internationally for the quality of its work, both academically and by societal impact.

Objectives

To conduct basic research that helps us understand factors that influence (a) the development of key outcomes in numeracy, literacy, cognitive and socio-emotional skills, and (b) physical and psychological well-being;
To conduct translational research and develop novel interventions that improve children's developmental outcomes; and
To provide data for evidence-based refinement to teaching practices. Using longitudinal data on the interplay between pedagogy and development, a goal of the Centre is to develop teacher professional training material that showcases and provides concrete examples of what effective pedagogy looks and feels like.

Centre for Psychosocial Health

Vision and Mission

Establish the evidence base for scalable interventions and education to enhance public mental health; and
Conduct research and develop practice in school settings to the existing strength of CPH in health and community psychology.

Our Work

Enhance community well-being;
Elucidate social psychological processes for health promotion; and
Promote positive health in schools.

Areas of Expertise

Psychosocial Health
Stress Adaptation and Resilience
Positive Health in School and Community Settings

Psychological Assessment and Clinical Research Unit
The Unit operates as a service and a research unit. Apart from providing various specialised psychological services to the general public, the Unit also conducts research projects that are relevant to human cognitive, behavioural, and emotional functioning. Specialised services within the discipline of psychology are provided by registered clinical psychologists, educational psychologists, and/or counsellors.

Integrated Centre for Wellbeing (I-WELL Centre)

Vision

To be a research and resource hub supporting collaborative initiatives towards the development of holistic wellbeing for people of all ages at local and regional community.

Mission

To educate the community about the importance of personal and family wellbeing;
To coordinate applied research which addresses the diverse needs of individual, family and community wellness;
To integrate research findings with clinical services and offer these to individuals with special needs, families, schools and communities;
To provide professional training to individuals, groups and organisations; and
To enhance people's individual potential, quality of life and wellbeing.

Our Key Services

Research Support

Support research centres and colleagues in the University to conduct inter-discipline research in the areas of counselling, neuroscience, mental and physical health of students, and special education needs; and
Collaborate with schools, community units, educational and social welfare organisations to implement applied research projects which address the diverse needs of children, adolescents and development of the community.

Professional Consultancy

Provide outreach programmes and consultancy services to different community units, educational and social welfare organisations; and
Provide professional educational programmes, seminars and workshops to frontline professionals

Clinical Services

Complement government and social welfare organisations to provide high-level and integrated professional services and bioanalytical laboratory services; and
Apply Integrated Case Management Model to manage multidisciplinary cases with an aim of delivering clinical services and support to individuals, families, schools, academic research units, social welfare organisations and the community.

Community Education

Educate the community about the importance of personal and family wellbeing, and maximise the potential of children and adolescents; and
Equip frontline professionals with knowledge and skills to meet changes and demands in community services.

Parent and Family Education

Provide different types of parent education, resources and support, to families of children and adolescents with special educational needs; and
Provide seminars and workshops enhancing good parenting practices.

Bioanalytical Laboratory for Educational Sciences (BLESS)

Facilitate interdisciplinary research across academic departments in EdUHK and beyond by providing support on experiments with biological analyses and giving both objective and scientific evidence to support researchers' studies; and
Provide consultancy in bioanalytical equipment test for doing various bioanalytical testing and research experiments with a view to analyse biomarkers that infer treatment efficacy or to identify abnormal cases in mental disorders and selected Special Educational Needs (SEN).

FACULTY OF HUMANITIES

International Research Centre for Cultural Studies

The International Research Centre for Cultural Studies (IRCCS, 文化研究國際中心) replaced the Centre for Popular Culture in the Humanities (which was established in 2016) in August 2022, as a new vibrant hub for cultural studies research and development under the Faculty of Humanities (FHM) at The Education University of Hong Kong.

Cultural studies research was initially developed for advancing critical studies of popular culture in Hong Kong and across Asia. Early events include a symposium titled “East Asian Popular Culture: Looking Back, Looking Forward” as well as conferences such as “Post-Crash Irish Literature: Its Emergence and Influence” and “Surveillance, Form, Affect: An Interdisciplinary International Conference.”

The pedagogical support for cultural studies comes from FHM’s Department of Literature and Cultural Studies, which saw the offering of key undergraduate courses such as Gender and Popular Culture, Introduction to Film Studies and Postcolonial Literatures in English. In these courses and seminars, students are exposed to postcolonial theories, fandom studies, media and cultural theories, and feminist theories. More recently, digital humanities and environmental humanities methods and practices have been adopted.

Through the organization of research workshops, salons, seminars, colloquia, symposia and conferences as well as providing support for individual research projects, IRCCS serves as a “Cultural R&D” platform for the promotion of research activities in Cultural Studies at the University.

With ambitious research programmes in two areas - Critical Migration Studies and Comparative Cultures of Care - and members across the Humanities and Social Science faculties, IRCCS aims at producing cutting edge research in interdisciplinary Cultural Studies. Areas of research include qualitative cultural research (e.g. ethnography, inter-textual studies, diary/memory studies, etc.), visual and digital media studies, cultural and creative industry research, advancing cultural theory such as postcolonial and new materialist theories, critical cultural pedagogy, cultural identity studies, and so on. Since the Centre is located in EdUHK, it will maintain a focus on the cultural studies of education.

The Centre is administered by a Management Committee, which reports to the Faculty of Humanities and the Office of the Vice President (Research and Development). The Management Committee consists of faculty members of FHM and EdUHK. An Advisory Board will be formed, consisting of international experts in cultural studies. Besides, the IRCCS will establish close links with various cultural studies research centres around Hong Kong for collaboration and intellectual exchange.

Centre for Research on Chinese Language and Education

Established by the Faculty of Humanities of The Education University of Hong Kong, the Centre for Research on Chinese Language and Education (CRCLE) is an interdepartmental platform for research on Chinese language and education. Rooted in the multicultural and multilingual Hong Kong society, CRCLE brings together talents and research outputs on Chinese linguistics and teaching and learning Chinese as the first and a second language across the globe, to strengthen the theoretical advancement and the applied research of the Chinese language, as well as the interplay between language theory and application. CRCLE endeavours to not only echo the multifaceted needs of Chinese language education in the region, but also to advance the development of teaching Chinese as an international language around the world.

The CRCLE comprises three thematic groups:

(a)	Chinese Language Studies: Research of this group covers a variety of fields concerning ancient and contemporary Chinese language, such as historical linguistics, syntax, phonology, typology and philology.
(b)	Chinese Language Education: Veteran teacher educators in this group initiate research on classical Chinese curriculum in Hong Kong, Chinese language development of non-Chinese speaking (NCS) students and interplay of STEM education and Chinese language education.
(c)	Teaching Chinese as a Second Language: This group aims to explore how L2 learners acquire Chinese from a scientific perspective, with a particular emphasis on reading and writing development of L2 Chinese learners and Putonghua learning by Cantonese-speaking children.

Objectives

To undertake scientific research in the areas of Chinese language and education, including L1 and L2 Chinese learning and teaching;
To synergise research efforts and to create critical mass among colleagues within EdUHK and researchers in Greater China;
To disseminate Chinese language and education research to regional academia through publications, seminars, conferences and workshops; and
To provide an international platform for collaboration with global key players and for maintaining contacts with local partner schools and other end-users, within the ambit of Chinese language and education.

Centre for Research on Linguistics and Language Studies

The Centre for Research on Linguistics and Language Studies (CRLLS) aims to take a broad and intellectually stimulating perspective into language and linguistics research at the University. While EdUHK has transformed to an education-focused, multidisciplinary, and research-strong university, the establishment of CRLLS is to foster the research capacity in and contribute to the areas of linguistics and language studies for the advancement of the humanities.

The Centre comprises of three thematic groups:

(a)	Corpus Linguistics and Language Technology: One of the major research areas is corpus linguistics involving the use of authentic and natural language data.
(b)	Language Learning and Acquisition: This group will adopt a cross-linguistic approach to research into issues related to the cognitive aspects of language learning and language acquisition, language disorders, language learner variables, learner autonomy, language assessment, and their applications in language teaching.
(c)	Language in Society: To conduct research on language-contact and cross-cultural phenomena in the Hong Kong society.

Objectives

To undertake scientific research in the areas of linguistics and language studies for the advancement of the humanities and the sciences involving language, and of education;
To promote the development of new methodology and technology to enhance language learning and teaching, and research;
To synergise research efforts and to create critical mass among colleagues within EdUHK and researchers in Hong Kong; and
To promote international collaboration through networking with other key players in selected fields within the ambit of “Linguistics and Language Studies”.

For more information on the people, projects and events, please visit the website: www.eduhk.hk/crlls.

Research Centre for Chinese Literature and Literary Culture

Background
The Research Centre for Chinese Literature and Literary Culture (RCCLLC) is established in response to the development of the EdUHK, the knowledge production trends over time, and the needs of our learning society.

To echo the strategic plan of transforming into a multi-disciplinary university of education focusing on education and complementary areas of study, "Chinese language and literature" is recognised as one of the potential subject areas to be developed at the University. The RCCLLC can combine the critical mass and resources in the Faculty of Humanities to launch all-rounded studies on Chinese literature and literary culture. The establishment of the RCCLLC is an effective development strategy for the University to foster its research capacity and make significant impact on the field of Chinese studies regionally and internationally.

The concept of "literary culture" is an extension of the more traditional idea of "literature". Apart from researches on literary works and their authors, literary thoughts and schools, genres and styles, and literary influences – the areas regarded as "literature proper", the study of literary culture also includes explorations of the generation and dissemination of literary texts and literary knowledge. In this regard, the publication and marketing of literary works, literature education, literary historiography, filmic and television adaptations of literature, graphic novels and lyrics of pop songs will be among the legitimate study areas. By the same token, Hong Kong literature and children's literature which have long been marginalised in the research of Chinese literature will be an indispensable part of literary culture.

Aims and Objectives of the RCCLLC

In accordance with the new direction of transforming the EdUHK into a multi-disciplinary university, the RCCLLC aims at enhancing the quality of subject knowledge research so as to create a favourable environment for the development of discipline-based postgraduate research degree programmes;
The RCCLLC promotes the culture of collaboration in research, by teaming experienced academics with juniors to work on projects and explore the possibilities of obtaining outside funds such as GRF;
Through publishing research outcomes, participating in and organising international conferences, the RCCLLC aims to expand Centre members' research capacity while fostering the EdUHK's academic image; and
Emphasising the linkage between the production of literary knowledge and literature education with an awareness of the Hong Kong context, the RCCLLC aims also at further consolidating the strength of the EdUHK in educational research and application.

Scope of Research
The RCCLLC takes Chinese literature and related cultural phenomena as research objects. Its scope can be briefly categorised into three areas:

Literature as such: research topics include major authors and works, literature trends and schools, literary genres and styles, literary influences and others;
Cultural artefact and phenomena generated from literature: research topics include anthologies of literary works, literary picture books, filmic and television adaptations of literature, lyrics of pop songs and others; and
Transmission of literary knowledge and literature education: research topics include production and marketing of literary texts, reading culture, literature education and others.

For more information on the people, projects and events, please visit the website: www.eduhk.hk/rccllc.

FACULTY OF LIBERAL ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development

The Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development (CESD) is built on the work of the Centre for Education in Environmental Sustainability (CEES), which was established as a faculty-level Research Centre in FLASS since January 2013, with new theme areas to emphasise active research in related areas of science for environmental health and education for environmental sustainability for academic and scientific research outputs, application and knowledge transfer. The aim of the Centre is to develop education for environmental sustainability and science for environmental health through the formation of research and knowledge transfer networks with academics, scholars and professionals to improve the understanding of environment-related matters, and to stimulate pro-active environmentally beneficial actions through research outputs and application.

Specific objectives for expansion, innovation, and impact:

Develop multi-disciplinary research capacity with researchers from different fields;
Reinforce the synergism between teaching and research; and
Promote pro-environmental action, attitudes and awareness of environmental and sustainability issues

Theme Areas:

Theme 1	Education for Environmental Sustainability STEM Education for Sustainable Development (STEM) Education for Environmental Studies (EES)
Theme 2	Science for Environmental Health Environmental Health (EH) Consortium on Health, Environment, Education and Research (CHEER) Environmental Technological Innovation (ETI) Eco-garden and Organic Farming (EOF)